Charley Hull Wins 2019 LET Opener

The 2019 Ladies European Tour season teed off in Abu Dhabi and Charley Hull claimed the trophy — her first win in more than two years.

It's easy to forget how young Hull is because she's been around so long. Her first victory happened at age 16 in 2014 on the Ladies European Tour. At age 17 she was playing in the Solheim Cup. And she won the prestigious 2016 CME Group Tour Championship on the LPGA Tour.

But Hull hadn't won since then. Until the LET season-opener, the 2019 Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open. Hull earned the win with a final score of 8-under 208, shooting 67-72-69. She finished one stroke better than runner-up Marianne Skarpnord.

It was a wire-to-win win for Hull. But after Skarpnord set the clubhouse lead at 7-under, Hull got to 8-under and then needed par on the last to win it. She got up-and-down from a greenside bunker to do just that.

Michelle Wie's Bahamas Bikini Bonanza

Michelle Wie attended Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge in early December, which is played at The Albany resort in the Bahamas. And she must have really liked the place, because she's back there now with a group of friends. And Michelle is sharing plenty of bikini pics on her Instagram account. Thanks, Michelle! Your fans (at least your male ones) appreciate it.

We've gathered a selection of Wiezy's Bahamas bikini bonanza.

Here she is with part of her crew (from left, Hally Leadbetter, Wie, Amanda Balionis, Ashley K. Mayo and Kira Kazantsev):

And here Wie is with her good friend Hally Leadbetter:

Here here is Wiezy with former Miss America Kazantsev:

Plus a couple more Wiezy solo shots:

Julia Engstrom, LET Rookie of the Year for 2018

Who is Julia Engstrom? She's the Ladies European Tour's 2018 Rookie of the Year at the age of 17.

Engstrom, the youngest in a strong current crop of Swedish golfers, became, at age 15, the youngest-ever winner of the British Ladies Amateur Championship in 2016. She was also low amateur that year at the Evian Championship.

In 2017 she was part of Sweden's winning team at the European Team Championship and played in the Junior Solheim Cup. In 2016-17, she spent two years as the highest-ranked amateur golfer born in the 21st Century.

Then Engstrom entered LET Qualifying School and finished ninth, earning her 2018 tour card at age 16. (She turned 17 in March of 2018.)

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A post shared by Julia Engström (@juliaengstrom1) on Nov 4, 2018 at 11:04am PST

And in her rookie season on the LET, Julia had a high finish of fifth at the Lalla Meryem Cup, plus three other Top 15 finishes. She was 19th on the tour's Order of Merit.

Julia appears to have a good combination of decent length off the tee (a 264-yard average in 2018, good for 21st on the LET) and accuracy into the greens. Her 76.35% GIR number was 11th on tour, and her 111 birdies was 15th.

Not bad for a golfer who is playing a pro tour while still in high school!

Becky Kay First Woman to Play vs. Men in Queensland Open

Australian amateur golfer Becky Kay will become the first woman ever to play in the (traditionally) men's Queensland Open tournament when she tees it up in the PGA Tour of Australasia event Nov. 1-4. And she played her way in through qualifying.

Kay, 19 years old, is the second-highest-ranked Australian in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Earlier in 2018, she won three consecutive top amateur tournaments in Australia (the Riversdale Cup, South Australian Amateur and Western Australia Amateur).

Kay earned her spot in the Queensland Open by carding a 2-under-par round, playing from the championship tees, at The Brisbane Golf Club during a Queensland High Performance event qualifier. The Brisbane Golf Club is also the site of the Queensland Open, and Kay has played that course at least once a week recently as part of her national team training.

Still, the difference in distance between the men and women will put her at a disadvantage in the Open.

"(Playing off the championship tees) will definitely change the way I play the course," Kay said after the qualifier. "The course is going to be a lot longer and my short game will have to be on fire."

"I am really excited and hoping to play well," she said, adding that making the cut is her goal.

You can read more from the PGA of Australia, or follow Becky on Instagram or Twitter.

Patty Tavatanakit, UCLA Phenom

Patty Tavatanakit not only won the 2018 ANNIKA Intercollegiate - one of the biggest tournaments in NCAA women's golf - but she did it with a record-setting effort.

Tavatanakit, a sophomore from Thailand, shot a final-round 63 to win by a single stroke. The score set a new course record at Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minn., and it also tied the UCLA school record first established last season by Lilia Vu.

But Patty's round was even more impressive than that. She started the final round in ninth place and seven strokes off the lead. Through her first eight holes, she was even-par.

But starting on the ninth hole, Tavatanakit made seven birdies in a row. Then she threw in the winning eagle on the final hole, playing the back nine in just 28 strokes.

“Coming into the week I did not expect to win,” Tavatanakit told Golfweek. “Even yesterday, I was struggling ... I was hoping that good things would happen and they did.”

Understatement alert.

Patty is coming off a freshman year at UCLA in which she played all 10 tournaments and won three of them, including a tie for the Pac-12 Championship. Tavatanakit also threw in a 2nd-place and a 3rd-place finish; in the other five events, she finished no lower than 19th.

How Swede It Is for Young Pro Linnea Strom

The latest first-time winner as a pro is Linnea Strom, whose initial professional victory happened in the 2018 Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge, a Symetra Tour tournament in South Dakota.

Strom scored an eagle and four birdies in her final round and finished at 11-under 269. That was one stroke ahead of runner-up Charlotte Thomas of England.

Strom is from Sweden, but has played most of her golf in the United States over the past five years. That's because she headed to Arizona State University to play NCAA golf, graduating in 2017. And she played it very well, earning All-America recognition. Among her college tournament victories was the 2016 Pac-12 Conference individual championship.

The $31,000 winner's check in South Dakota rocketed Strom up the Symetra Tour's money list, from 24th place to second. Her previous best finish was a tie for third, and she also has 8th-, 11th-, 12th, 14th- and 16th-place finishes among her Symetra Tour successes in 2018.